


The Rod of Aesculapius

by CandyCanine



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: M/M, Through medical and other means, tension relief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:54:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29060865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CandyCanine/pseuds/CandyCanine
Summary: Giving medical advice on stress relief turns into practical implementation of the same.
Relationships: Arcade Gannon/Nolan McNamara
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

After having followed the Courier faithfully throughout various parts of the Mojave for months and never questioning once neither her intentions nor her goals, Arcade found himself wondering if this latest venture of hers would be his doom. She had told him she was on good terms with the Brotherhood, albeit cautiously, but being inside the bunker in what was called Hidden Valley, he became aware just how good these terms really were. They would be staying overnight, she had told him cheerfully, and he had managed a bland smile to hide his uneasiness at being inside a place that reminded him far more of a past he was desperately trying to forget – or at least hide – than he liked.

There was no way he would actually be able to sleep inside the steel maze without falling victim to nightmares, he was sure of that, and so he spent his time wandering aimlessly around. Several members of the Brotherhood cast him wary glances, but for all they knew he was just a companion of the Courier, a doctor of the Followers. Had they known his secret he wouldn’t even have the time to think a single obscenity to ease his passing, but since they had no way of knowing, things were likely to stay peaceful and he likely to stay alive.

Maybe things didn’t look too bright at the moment, however. Looking around, Arcade realised he had managed to get himself lost during his aimless strolling around. He hesitated, hoped he wouldn’t stumble into some forbidden parts of the bunker and opened a door. Half expecting someone to shout at him what the hell he was doing here he was a little surprised at hearing precisely those words, yet in a much milder, almost polite and friendly voice.

“May I ask what you are doing here?” Nolan McNamara gave him a mildly inquisitive look, but didn’t seem upset. “I gather you have lost your way. Not really surprising, the bunker takes a bit of getting used to.”

Arcade slowly looked up and realised he had stumbled right into the Elder’s control room. A strained, embarrassed smile took control of his facial features. “Indeed. I couldn’t sleep, and since I couldn’t just step outside for a breath of air I... well...”

“No need to apologize”, McNamara fell in. “I am aware how unsettling the bunker can be.”

Arcade shrugged. “I guess so.”

McNamara’s eyes darted this way and that for a moment. “Here, you are a doctor of the Followers, aren’t you? You wouldn’t have some sort of...aid available for someone who suffers from a more or less permanent sleep disorder?”

Arcade pushed his glasses up his nose and eyed the Elder cautiously. “Are you referring to yourself, sir?”

McNamara’s smile narrowed into a thin line. “Indeed I am. Schuler, our medic, that is, had no idea how to help me, other than give me drugs that would make me sleep, which I declined. I suppose I do not have to tell you about the side effects of those.”

“Certainly not”, Arcade gave back and took a few more steps into the room. “Can you clarify the symptoms? Restlessness? A Racing heartbeat? Blood pressure...”

McNamara shrugged. “Headaches, mostly. I try to take as little medication as possible, because I know how addictive that can be. I lie awake, and my thoughts won’t let me rest. I guess I should learn to switch off my mind, but it is so laden with all sorts of worries these days...” He broke off and shrugged, giving Arcade an almost helpless look in the hopes that the doctor might understand. 

To an extent, he did. “Stress can do a lot of bad things to a man, especially to his sleep. Have you tried some sort of physical compensation? Exercise, like... I don’t know. Boxing, maybe, or running? I am sure you have some sort of training equipment here.”

“We have, and I tried”, McNamara gave back. “I discovered that physical exhaustion is not enough, however, to let me find rest.” He shrugged. “I felt more exhausted than ever and gave it up again.”

“Understandably”, Arcade replied and walked around the desk McNamara was sitting at and came to halt behind him. “Headaches, you say?”  
The Elder nodded. 

Arcade held out his hands over the Elder’s shoulders. “May I?”

“Certainly.” McNamara cast him a glance over one shoulder, a wry smile on his lips. “You’re a doctor, after all.”

“So I am”, Arcade replied, trying to ignore the way the curve of the Elder’s neck and the soft-looking silver hair was labelling him something far ruder. He closed his hands around McNamara’s shoulders and cautiously dug his thumbs into the base of his neck, eliciting a painful hiss from the Elder.

“My god”, it escaped him in a huff. “You could forge metal on that tension you have there, sir. No wonder you suffer from headaches.”

McNamara emitted a dry chuckle under his breath that turned into another hiss when Arcade circled his thumbs across the tensed muscles at the base of his skull. 

“Relax, sir. Breathe steadily.”

“It’s surprising how much that hurts”, was the reply.

“I know”, Arcade gave back. “At first, in any case.”

The Elder tried to follow Arcade’s advice to breathe slowly and steadily.

“Consider my next questions as purely medical and not as prying into your personal affairs”, Arcade said after a while. “In my personal experience it can do wonders for tense muscles and a sleepless, restless mind to have... intercourse. Sexual intercourse, I mean. Is there... I know it’s not my business, but is there a woman in your life, sir?”

The Elder chuckled. “No. And I must say that I certainly don’t fancy any of the... women inside the bunker, apart from the fact that me having an affair with one of my subordinates could lead to more problems resulting in even more headaches.”

“I see”, Arcade gave back and wondered if he had imagined the ever so tiny and yet ever so meaningful pause before the word ‘women’. Certain parts of his anatomy suddenly seemed to wish he hadn’t. 

He watched his fingers, gently kneading the hard muscles in McNamara’s neck and shoulders, and heard him sigh in that weird mixture of pain and relief when tensed muscles begin to relax while being massaged. A certain part of his brain suddenly supplied him with visions of his fingers leaving their current location and travelling down the Elder’s neck and back and up again to rest on his shoulders, to pull him back against his own body to run through his hair. He had a hard time focussing on his task.

To cover up his feelings Arcade tried to strike up conversation again. “Where does that leave you then, if the Bunker is closed down to outsiders and you are not supposed to... get involved with one of its inhabitants?” He cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Well, since I regard this discussion as a part of a medical treatment I see no harm in answering.” The Elder took a deep breath. “It leaves me very frustrated at times, if I am being honest.”

“Hm.” Trying to sound non-committing, Arcade focussed on a particularly hard string of muscles on the right side of McNamara’s neck. The Elder hissed, but took another deep breath and breathed it out again slowly. “Sorry, sir.”

The Elder exhaled softly through his nose sounding mildly amused.

“So... can I be frank?”

“By all means.”

“Is there any chance that now, after the Courier helped you to open the Bunker again, of you getting outside and meeting... you know. Someone?”

“What?” This time, he sounded genuinely amused. “Visit the Strip incognito, get drunk and wake up the next morning surrounded by a gaggle of pretty young... girls?”

Was he being baited? Another ever so tiny, meaningful pause. Arcade couldn’t imagine the Elder having to refrain from blundering that way twice in the same conversation, and decided to drop careful fencing in favour of blurting it out. 

“You could find yourself surrounded by a gaggle of strapping young man, as well.”

“Ah.” 

Never before had Arcade heard a word that small being so heavy with meaning. “Your personal preferences change nothing about the consequences of being involved with subordinates, I guess”, he said after a small, pregnant pause. He could feel the Elder’s shoulders tense under his fingers before he tried to relax again.

“Indeed not”, he said after a moment of silence. “And yes, since I cannot simply leave my post the chance of meeting someone by chance is... slim. At best.”

“Hm”, Arcade replied again, and realised his fingers were trembling ever so slightly. “Slim”, he said slowly. “Slim, but not impossible.”

The Elder chuckled again, but the sound died in his throat before he could make a reply as Arcade let his fingers trail down his neck in what was decidedly more a caress than the touch of a physician. McNamara in turn froze, but after a few heartbeats reached out and slowly pressed one of the buttons before him.

Arcade flinched, but nothing happened apart from a hissing sound that made him look up to realize the doors had closed again. A red light blinked beside them, and three chirps sounded ominously loud in the silent room. 

“I have not alarmed the guards, if this is what you were wondering”, McNamara said slowly. “I merely... locked the door.”

Arcade felt his throat go a little dry, as McNamara turned his head to look at him, smiling ever so slightly.

“Ah.”


	2. Chapter 2

After a moment that seemed to drag on forever McNamara lifted one eyebrow as he looked up into Arcade’s face. He might have misinterpreted Arcade’s mild nervousness as something different because he frowned and extended a hand towards the door.

“You are free to go, of course”, he said. “I can unlock the doors just as easily as I locked them.” 

His hand hovered over the button again but before he could press it, Arcade reached out and took that hand, closed his fingers around it and pulled it to his face.

“I assure you, that won’t be necessary, Elder McNamara”, he breathed against the fingers and pressed a gentle kiss to the Elder’s fingertips without taking his eyes of McNamara’s face. 

The Elder in turn had a trace of mild amusement playing around his lips as he slowly got out of his chair to face Arcade. 

Not letting go of the fingers enclosed in his left hand Arcade smiled back and only then realised that the Elder was his match in size – the first man in a very long time where he wouldn’t have to break his neck to kiss him. When he looked at the hand entwined with his own, he realised the Elder’s skin was of an almost perfect, translucent white, the skin of someone who hadn’t seen sunlight in a very long time. Together with his grey eyes and silver hair the contrast between him and Arcade, whose hair was a shade of ivory blonde and whose skin had tanned into a pale bronze during his travels with the Courier, made the two of them seem to match like…

“Like silver and gold”, the Elder said softly, obviously having made the same observation and having reached the same conclusion.

Arcade felt a shiver creep down his spine at these words and could only nod. Smiling was suddenly beyond him. He brought the fingers in his hand to his lips again instead, breathing a kiss on every single fingertip, still without taking his eyes of the other man’s face. 

The Elder took a deep breath as he watched Arcade kiss his fingers and when his eyes found Arcade’s, smiled a little self-consciously. “I haven’t done this in a very long time.” He swallowed as Arcade nibbled on his forefinger with very gentle bites. “I had... there was someone, a few years ago. It was nothing serious, and he fell at HELIOS.”

“I am sorry to hear that”, Arcade said after letting go of the finger. “Then it’s about time, don’t you agree?”

With a soft chuckle under his breath McNamara removed his fingers from Arcade’s unresisting grasp and moved them hesitatingly across his cheek to rest it on the back of his neck. “I can scarce believe my luck”, he said then with a tiny, crooked smile on his lips. “Are you truly serious?”

It was Arcade’s turn to chuckle now. “If I wasn’t, I would have used that chance to bolt you gave me, don’t you think?”

McNamara smiled at this and took a step closer to Arcade, pressing their bodies together. “I guess so.” His eyes were glowing like polished steel when he leaned closer and Arcade found himself captured in them as if he was under a spell, unable to look away. 

Words eluded him, though, but words didn’t seem necessary anymore, anyway, and he closed his eyes when the Elder moved his other hand up to Arcade’s cheek. Moments later he felt McNamara’s lips, soft and smooth, touching his own that were chapped and chafed from the sun and wind of the Mojave. Opening his lips Arcade moved his hands up to McNamara’s face to cup his cheeks in his hands as they kissed. Their breathing picked up speed as the Elder opened his lips and ran his tongue across Arcade’s lips, then caressed the other man’s tongue as well. With a soft moan Arcade moved his hands to the back of McNamara’s head and dug his fingers into the silver hair that felt as soft as it had promised to be.

With their bodies pressed together like this Arcade could also feel the hot and firm pressure of the Elder’s crotch against his own, being as they were equal in height. He trailed one of his hands down McNamara’s back to press him closer and the Elder responded with a hungry attack of his tongue into the doctor’s mouth as he followed the pressure of the hand at his back, pressing their bodies even closer together. 

When they broke the kiss for air a few moments later both of them were breathing heavily, but seeing McNamara smile at him under half-lowered lids, Arcade couldn’t help but smile back. With slow, almost hesitating movements the Elder then lifted his hands and began to unbutton Arcade’s coat. The doctor in turn gripped the edge of the console behind him for support, lost in the sensations of these almost clumsy fingers, and the Elder’s breath tickling the skin on his cheek and chin. 

Having unbuttoned the coat McNamara leaned forward and his lips brushed Arcade’s ear so the latter couldn’t help but shudder when the Elder spoke again in a low and almost husky whisper.

“What would you have me do?”

Arcade’s mind took a while to register the meaning of these words. Did the Elder want him to take control of the situation? And wasn’t that precisely what the poor soul needed after all the pressure, all the loads he had to bear? To give up control to someone else? Arcade let his head drop back with a soft moan when the Elder’s lips brushed across the sensitive skin of his throat right under the chin. A gentle kiss placed onto the doctor’s Adam’s apple made him shudder and moan again. 

“I didn’t plan this, you know”, Arcade managed to say, making the other man chuckle softly under his breath. 

“Of course.”

His eyes still closed Arcade still had to smile at the sound of McNamara’s voice. “Elder McNa…”

“Doctor Gannon”, the Elder interrupted him and Arcade opened his eyes to look at him, mildly confused. The Elder, however, still smiled that strange, enticing smile under half-lowered lids. “Nolan. Please... we might as well drop the formalities.”

Understanding dawned in him and Arcade returned the smile. “Arcade”, he said in turn and both men smiled at each other before Arcade closed his eyes again before leaning forward and claiming McNamara’s lips with his again. So soft, and so hungry. 

The sudden thought of how these lips would feel around his cock made his erection suddenly feel painful. His breathing becoming ragged at the thought he couldn’t push aside any more, Arcade broke the kiss and leaned back. 

“I want your mouth”, he rasped hoarsely, aware of how ragged he sounded, yet unable to hold back the desire and the need he suddenly felt. 

McNamara smiled at him, breathing hard and fast as well as he slowly sank to his knees before Arcade. Almost hypnotized by the slow and leisurely moves of McNamara’s fingers, Arcade leaned back and watched as the Elder slowly and unhurriedly unbuckled the doctor’s belt and unzipped his pants. His grip tightened around the edge of the console desk as McNamara hooked his fingers into Arcade’s waistband and pulled, ever so slowly, until his erection sprang free, blue-veined, hard and glistening at the tip. 

Arcade had barely time to drink in the sight of McNamara eyeing his penis in a strange sort of devotion, before the latter opened his lips and slipped the straining, quivering cock into his mouth emitting a sound that reminded Arcade of a starving beggar child being tossed a piece of bread.

Thinking became impossible as those soft and hungry lips caressed his throbbing penis, the tongue working in circles around his glans while McNamara sucked him with soft, urgent humming noises. Arcade gasped for breath a couple of times before he was no longer able to keep his eyes open and his head dropped back, lolling back and forth as if he was about to lose consciousness. 

Considering the ice-cold fire sizzling along his nerves, maybe he was. Unable to keep his fingers to himself he buried them into McNamara’s hair even if that meant he had to steady himself with spreading his legs a little more. That in turn however gave even better access to the kneeling McNamara who now remembered he had hands, too, and used those hands to gently cup Arcade’s balls to fondle them with smooth and slender fingers.

Arcade’s breathing hitched and his legs began to tremble from the strain of keeping himself upright. 

“Careful”, he gasped, digging his fingers into McNamara’s hair. “Slow…”

McNamara leaned back, released Arcade’s penis with a wet, sucking kiss that made the doctor wince and emit a sound that was somewhere between a gasp and a whine. When McNamara looked up, face slightly flushed and hair more than slightly messed up, Arcade felt dizzy from the sight before him as much as from the sensation of his suddenly exposed, bare and throbbing cock. 

“What?”, McNamara breathed in a husky voice. “Not good?” Yet his smile betrayed his words, revealing them as the tease they were.

Arcade managed a chuckle between two ragged breaths. “Too good.”

Extending his tongue McNamara touched the tip of his tongue to the tip of Arcade’s penis, making the doctor gasp again.

“Torture?”, he asked and licked his lips. “Or release?”

Arcade swallowed heavily and shook his head. “I guess I’m not man enough for that”, he chuckled breathlessly. “I chose release.”

“As you wish”, McNamara replied and took Arcade’s cock into his mouth as deeply as he could and its owner’s head fell back with a heavy moan. It may have been a long time, but McNamara certainly hadn’t forgotten.

Arcade felt his heartbeat throb in his ears, picking up speed, and all his nerves suddenly seemed to glow, the blood in his veins replaced with liquefied gold. Moments later he reached his point of no return and digging his fingers into McNamara’s hair again he couldn’t hold back a hoarse cry. He spent himself with a few thrusts of his hips he couldn’t suppress, as little as he could stop himself from moaning McNamara’s name a few times as he did so. The kneeling Elder dutifully sucked him off until the sensation became too much for Arcade and he dug his fingers into the Elder’s hair to gently pull his head back.

Sweating and panting Arcade fell back against the console again, grappling for support, and moments later McNamara was at his side again and closed surprisingly strong arms around the doctor’s shoulders. Following the impulse Arcade let his head drop against McNamara’s shoulders, his face resting against the skin of his neck, and tried to catch back his breath. It took him quite a while.

During these silent moments in McNamara’s embrace, Arcade listened to the other man’s heartbeat that was only very slowly calming down. 

Just a few moments more, and he would gladly return the favour. He was, in fact, very much looking forward to it. 

_Just not yet_ , he thought, _just a few moments more_.

It was hard to admit to himself how pleasant it was to stand there with McNamara’s arms around him, with his own arms slung around the Elder’s midriff, and yet it was even harder to move.  
How long they remained like this Arcade couldn’t say, but at one point he felt recovered enough to peel himself out of McNamara’s embrace to look at the other man with a smile.

The Elder returned that smile and leaned forward to kiss him again. A gentle touch of lips, and another, and yet another one, and Arcade was already breathing fast again. He opened his lips, and as McNamara opened his own Arcade suddenly tasted something thick and salty on his tongue. His heart began to race when a jolt of heat racked through his body at the realisation that McNamara hadn’t swallowed his whole load and that it was his own juice he was tasting. 

The sensation of having his own semen trickled into his mouth by McNamara’s tongue had him hard again within a handful of heartbeats and he moaned heavily against the Elder’s lips, digging his bare groin into McNamara’s still fully clothed one. Breathing ragged he took the Elder buy the shoulders and turned him around, not roughly, yet not quite gently, either.

McNamara in turn let himself be thrown forward and steadied himself with two hands on the console as behind him, Arcade admired the handiwork of the robes McNamara wore. They were slit between the legs up to the waistline for ease of movement, and when he had, with trembling hands, unbuckled McNamara’s belt, unbuttoned his pants and shoved them down to his knees, all he had to do was slide his hands up McNamara’s ass to part the cloth and reveal said ass in all its milk-white and round-cheeked glory.

McNamara was breathing heavily in short, ragged gasps as Arcade admired his backside. His breathing turned into urgent moans however when Arcade reached around him and closed a hand around the tip of the Elder’s penis, eliciting sounds that he listened with a satisfied smile. In lack of any alternative he spat on his fingers, before sliding it between the cheeks of McNamara’s ass and across the eagerly twitching ring of muscle in between. He did that a few times more before he dared to breach him. 

McNamara threw his head back and groaned as Arcade inserted first one finger into that ring of muscle, then two. He withdrew his fingers again, much to McNamara’s audible dismay, but grinning to himself and breathing hard as well Arcade repeated the whole process all over, aided with some more spit. It was less than ideal, but Arcade doubted that the Elder had oil or anything else at hand, and he could not imagine either of them leaving the room to go on a hunt for suitable lubrication. 

When his probing finger encountered no resistance anymore whatsoever he leaned forward, brushed his lips across McNamara’s cheek and nipped his earlobe before whispering hoarsely into the Elder’s ear: “Are you ready for me, Nolan?”

McNamara in turn threw his head back with a soft gasp. “More than that.”

Listening to the urgency in McNamara’s voice and staring at that ass with the glistening crack between the cheeks was all the encouragement Arcade needed, not that he had needed any, truth to be told. After spitting in his hand again to do what he could with his cock he slid it between McNamara’s buttocks, and elicited a sharp gasp from the Elder. With a slow and practised move, Arcade gripped both buttocks in his hands and sheathed himself, unable to suppress a heavy groan as he did so. When Arcade began to move both men were gasping in heavy huffs of breath.

After a few moments of moving leisurely Arcade leaned forward again and slid his hands around McNamara’s waistline, cupping his balls in one hand and closing the other around his throbbing cock. 

Stroking him in the rhythm he set with his thrusts Arcade picked up speed, slowly increasing the ferocity of both his thrusts and the flick of his wrist until McNamara was reduced to a gasping, moaning mess under him, with sweat dripping down his temples and his tongue hanging ever so slightly out of his open mouth. 

Normally, Arcade wasn’t into dirty talk while he fucked, but in this case he couldn’t resist, for whatever reason. 

“You like this?”, he rasped, a single bead of sweat trickling down his temple. Under him, McNamara dropped his forehead down against the console and the sound he emitted was unintelligible.  
“What?”

“Yes.” McNamara gasped again through gritted teeth. “Oh god... Yes...”

Taking the hint Arcade thrust even harder and within a few moments, he heard McNamara groan deeply in his chest and his balls clenched in his palms as a hot squirt of thick liquid squirted out between his fingers. Since he had had the pleasure of being sucked off not too long ago Arcade held out a little while longer, but he didn’t hold himself back when he felt his own orgasm build up again. He let go and within a few more thrusts, and spent himself again into McNamara while his fingers dug into the Elder’s buttocks.

Both men were catching back their breath and leaning heavily onto the console for quite a few minutes before any of them was able to move again. Cautiously and slowly, Arcade withdrew himself again, eliciting a sharp hiss from McNamara as he left him. The Elder turned around and looked up at Arcade, a soft sheen in his silver eyes and a gentle smile on his lips. That, together with his messed-up hair and his cheeks glistening with sweat, made Arcade’s throat go dry as he looked at him. When the Elder reached out and closed a hand around the back of Arcade’s neck he followed and closed his eyes when their lips met again in a gentle, but passionate kiss. Arcade closed his arms around the Elder’s shoulders and opened his lips to him, letting his own tongue play with McNamara’s. 

When they broke the kiss McNamara still smiled and ran a hand through Arcade’s hair. “I certainly feel less tense now, doctor. Thank you kindly.” 

Arcade returned that smile. “If I were to make a prescription I’d say you should take this kind of medication on a regular basis.”

McNamara chuckled. “Indeed? And how…”

“Have you ever thought about establishing diplomatic relations with the Followers of the Apocalypse?”, Arcade interrupted him. 

“I hadn’t”, McNamara replied, still smiling. “It sounds reasonable, though. Give up our isolation, become a part of the world outside. Put out resources and knowledge to a good use. Is that what you mean?”

“That as well”, Arcade gave back with a smug smile. 

McNamara chuckled again. “And I guess you would take up the burden of ambassador willingly?”

“Well, I guess I know my duties.”

“If you know your duties as well as you your medical prescriptions then I am looking very much forward to establishing said diplomatic relations.”

They shared another smile and another kiss, and after that parted to bring their respective appearances into some sort of order again. 

McNamara ran his fingers across Arcade’s upper arm and the symbol of his calling that was embroidered on it. “This is the symbol of the craft of healing, isn’t it? Aesculapius’ staff?.”

Arcade squinted down his shoulder and flashed the Elder a smile. “I am sure the initial meaning of the... Rod of Aesculapius wasn’t what I just made of it”, he gave back. Both men chuckled.

With another smile McNamara turned towards the console again to unlock the door, only to falter and blink a few times while his face turned even paler as it was.

“Nolan?”

McNamara looked up at Arcade, a strained smile on his face. “I forgot…”

“What?”, Arcade snapped, an irrational panic welling up inside him at the sight of McNamara’s face, and he felt his heart pound in his ears at McNamara’s next words.

“I forgot... to deactivate the security cameras.”

“Oh.”


End file.
